Newsletter - physics.okstate.edu · Newsletter 2018 │ 1 Letter from the Department Head Hello to our alumni and friends, It has been awhile since our last newsletter and a lot has

In this issue:

New Faces

Faculty Honored

Degrees Granted

Student Projects & Awards

Alumni News

Undergrad Opportunities

Grants Awarded

Faculty Retiring

New Faculty

Society of Physics Students

Astronomy and Observatory

Department Highlights

Featured Publication

Newsletter

2018 │ 1

Letter from the Department Head

Hello to our alumni and friends,

It has been awhile since our last newsletter and a

lot has changed. For example, my name is Dave

McIlroy and I am the new Head of the depart-

ment. I came to OSU last year after 20+ years at

the University of Idaho, where I served as Chair

for four years. I am an experimental condensed

physicist, where I study materials and phenomena

at the nanoscale. What condensed matter physicist

doesn’t, right? I have really enjoyed my first year

at OSU and working with my colleagues in the

department. We have a fantastic group of faculty

and staff. Enough about me.

There have and continue to be many changes to the face of the department.

In particular, Bruce Ackerson is retiring after four decades of service! Thank

you, Bruce! We have a new faculty member by the name of Emrah Turgut.

Emrah is a condensed matter experimentalist who comes our way via

Cornell University (postdoc) and the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Welcome, Emrah! In addition, we have the green light to hire two new

faculty during the upcoming year – one experimentalist and one theoretician.

As for our students, we have approximately 50 physics majors, which I

believe is the largest in the history of the department. I can’t take any

credit for this. The faculty have been working hard to recruit and create

an inclusive atmosphere for all of our students. We are growing our

efforts to get our physics majors into the lab and reflected by the numerous

scholarships and awards garnered. Our graduate program is also doing

well. If you know any great physics majors, send them our way.

The department’s goal is to continue to grow our footprint across

campus and the community. We have excellent support from the

college and plan to continue to demonstrate the value of a high quality

physics program. We hope you will stop by the department for a visit

next time you are in town.

2018 │ 2 OSU Physics Newsletter

New Faces

We have had a few new faces join us in our department over the last

year. In the office, Beth Bridenstine joins Susan Cantrell and Alisha

Leach as Administrative Support Assistant II. Alisha has moved to Fi-

nancial Assistant II and Susan is as amazing as ever in her role as Ad-

ministrative Associate. Along with our new Department Head, Dr.

McIlroy came two post-docs, Elena Echeverria and Lyndon Bastatas.

And while Dr. Shaikh Saad and Dr. Saki Khan are not new faces, they

have joined us as Visiting Assistant Professors. In the Instrument

Shop, Megan Wick has joined Larry Vaughn’s crew.

Faculty honored

Dr. Flera Rizatdinova was one of six faculty honored on

Dec. 6 at the annual University Awards Convocation. Re-

cipients are selected based on evidence of outstanding and

meritorious research achievements and are recognized na-

tionally and internationally in their fields of study.

Dr. Rizatdinova investigates high-energy physics to un-

derstand properties of fundamental elements in the uni-

verse. She came to OSU in 2005 to start a high-energy

physics research group, which led OSU scientists to join

two international research collaborations, the ATLAS De-

tector experiment at CERN in Switzerland and a study of

the interaction of elements at the Fermi National Acceler-

ator Laboratory in Illinois.

Dr. Flera Rizatdinova Receives 2017 Regents Distinguished Research Award

Dr. Donghua Zhou Receives 2018 OSU President's Fellows Faculty Research

Award

Dr. Donghua Zhou received the 2018 President's Fellows Faculty Re-

search Award to study the structure of protein mortalin in complex with can-

cer drug SHetA2. This study is expected to provide accurate information for

structure-guided design of compounds with the best cancer inhibition power

and the least toxicity. Dr. Zhou was one of the three faculty honored at the

2018 Researcher's Reception on March 28.

New Additions to Our Staff

OSU Physics Newsletter 2018 │ 3

Student Projects and awards

OSU Physics goes to space

The Active Tissue Equivalent Dosimeter (ATED),

developed by OSU physics Ph.D. students Oliver

Causey and Bryan Hayes of the Radiation Physics

Laboratory, was sent to the International Space Sta-

tion (ISS) aboard the OA9 Antares resupply mis-

sion on May 21, 2018. ATED is a compact, porta-

ble, low cost ionizing radiation detector designed

for use on a range of different platforms including

manned spacecraft, unmanned satellites and space

probes, high altitude balloon flights and on com-

mercial, civil (business) and military aircraft. The

instrument is based on a gas-filled tissue equivalent

proportional counter designed to simulate a ~3 mm3

biological cell such that the sensitivity of the detec-

tor to ionizing radiation is similar to that of human

tissue. ATED, developed with support of a NASA

EPSCoR grant, is scheduled to operate for six months, after which

it will either be returned to OSU or be handed over to the Space

Radiation Analysis Group at NASA Johnson Space Center for

further operation on ISS.

Exposure of astronauts to elevated levels of ionizing radiation is

one of the major hazards of spaceflight—especially long duration

space missions such as the human exploration of Mars or the es-

tablishment of human habitats on the Moon. Real time monitoring

of the radiation levels that space crews are exposed to will be es-

sential on human exploration missions. ATED will measure the

radiation dose received by crew during spaceflight as functions of

time and the orbital location of the ISS.

Active Tissue Equivalent Dosim-eter flight unit prior to delivery to NASA

OSU Graduate Student, Oliver Causey adjusting the ATED detector head during calibration exposures at the HIMAC heavy ion accelerator in Chiba, Japan

Degrees Granted

PhD Degrees Master’s Degrees

Bachelor’s Degrees

Shaikh Saad Shuo Dai Hem Moktan Oliver Causey Adam Coleman Siamak Dadras Rajesh Panthi

Percy Nebah Nishan Shrestha Amruthaa Sundararaj

Cameron Racz Charith DeSilva Tristen Lee Brian Ragsdale Cosmo Binegar

Fall 2017 Spring 2018 Spring 2018 Spring 2018 Spring 2018

Summer 2017 Fall 2017 Fall 2017

Spring 2018 Spring 2018 Spring 2018 Spring 2018

Fall 2017 Fall 2017

Spring 2018

OSU doctoral student wins research fellowship at Argonne National Lab Wasikul Islam, a graduate student in physics at Oklahoma State University, has

been selected for a prized research fellowship at the Argonne National Laboratory

(ANL) in Chicago, one of the largest science and energy laboratories in the U.S. The

laboratory usually hosts only two interns a year in its high energy physics division,

and Islam, who is already familiar with the facility, will work there for one year

thanks to the research fellowship.

“Last summer I worked at Argonne National Lab as a research aide in the HEP Cen-

ter for Computational Excellence Summer Internship program. I am very happy to

get this expanded opportunity to go back to Argonne and work there again for a

much longer period of time,” Islam said. “I’m especially grateful to my adviser, Dr. Alexander

Khanov, and other professors in our research group at OSU for their guidance and support.”

The fellowship, which includes a $20,000 stipend, is provided by the ATLAS research group at ANL

to graduate students whose universities participate in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron

Collider at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. OSU’s Experimental High Energy Phys-

ics research group has been a member of the ATLAS collaboration since 2010. The ATLAS experi-

ment involves the search for new discoveries based on the collision of high energy protons.

Islam will be participating in work toward upgrading the pixel tracker, which is the innermost part of

the ATLAS detector for the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider and essential for allowing scien-

tists to better analyze the products of proton collisions and draw insights. The objective of the project

is to ensure that the upgraded detector is able to cope with increased collider luminosity and make the

rare processes the collider can generate observable in more detail. The upgraded version of the collid-

er is expected to become operational in the year 2025.


Student Projects and awards

Solmaz Bastani and her teammates win Pitch & Poster Competition It is our pleasure to announce that Solmaz Bastani, a Physics PhD candi-

date in Dr. Jongmin Cho’s Medical Physics Laboratory,

along with her teammates, MBA student Imran Salim and

MSE student Misti Quirling, won first prize with their

business idea in the Spears School of Business Pitch and

Poster Competition. They presented "Self-illuminating

Quantum Dots to Image Cancerous Cells" in a 90-second

talk as if they were in an elevator with a potential customer to see

whether he was interested in investing in their start-up company. This

year, 25 teams participated with 2 rounds of serious competition and Solmaz’s team won first place in

the STEM field. The team received a cash prize of $1500 and free admission to Startup Weekend.

Gil M. Repa from Dr. Zhou's Lab Receives Wentz Research Congratulations to Gil M. Repa, a Biochemistry major working in Dr. Zhou's Biologi-

cal Physics group, on his reception of a Wentz Research Grant. Recently, Gil also won

2nd place in OSU College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Three Minute Thesis

(3MT) Competition on February 23, 2018. In the event, undergraduates presented their

own research in 3 minutes with the assistance of only one power point slide. Scholar-

ships ranging from $500 to $1,250 were awarded to the 1st through 5th place winners.

The title of his presentation was Structure-based Drug Design for Cancer. His presen-

tation can be viewed on ostate.tv, starting at about 33 min. On April 14, Gil presented

again at an OSU Heritage Foundation Celebration fundraising event.


Alumni News

Michelle Shinn Doing Well at Department of Energy

Michelle Shinn was born and r aised in Oklahoma, and received

her Physics degrees at Oklahoma State University. After receiving

her PhD, she joined Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 1984,

working in the Laser (Y) Division, until 1990, when she left to join

the faculty at Bryn Mawr College as an Associate Professor of Phys-

ics. In 1995, she started at Jefferson Lab as a staff scientist. From

1996-1999, she led the design, procurement, and installation activi-

ties for the IR Demo free-electron laser (FEL) optical cavity,

transport and diagnostics, and from 1999 to 2006 performed the

same duties on the Upgrade FEL, which is still the world’s highest

power tunable ultrafast laser. For her work at Jefferson Lab and ear-

lier work on the use of lasers in society, in 2012 she was elected a

Fellow of the American Physical Society. In August of 2013 she started a 1 year assignment at the

DOE Office of Nuclear Physics Facilities and Project Management Division, and finding she liked

the environment, joined the Office in Jan. 2016. She is the Program Manager for Industrial Concepts,

responsible for the NP Small Business Innovative Research program and is working to strengthen ties

with industry in order to foster the development of commercial applications from nuclear physics re-

search.

Dr. Mario Borunda and Dr. Alexander Khanov host REU Summer 2018

Undergrad Opportunities

This summer, undergraduate students were supported per year for ten weeks of summer research. The

primary objective was to immerse students in a stimulating multidisciplinary research atmosphere

that would allow the participants to pursue a personalized research project in physics. This REU pro-

gram develops human resources that enhance the nation's technology base and are critical for the well

-being of society at-large.

There were research projects available in several research areas including Atomic Physics, Computa-

tional Physics, Experimental and Theoretical High Energy Physics, Optical Physics, Optoelectronics,

and Quantum Information Sciences. Participants also attended seminars on a variety of topics includ-

ing both professional development and careers in physics, received ethics and safety training, and en-

gaged in cohort activities with the other students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has

been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and

broader impacts review criteria.


Grants Awarded

(STILLWATER, Okla., Oct. 6, 2017) – Five

high energy physicists from the Oklahoma

State University Department of Physics have

secured a major grant from the U.S. Depart-

ment of Energy worth $1.27 million to con-

duct fundamental research in elementary par-

ticle physics. The grant, which is spread over

three years, will support research in experi-

mental particle physics led by Drs. Flera Ri-

zatdinova, Alexander Khanov and Joseph Ha-

ley as well as theoretical physics research led

by Drs. Satya Nandi and Kaladi Babu.

Rizatdinova is a professor of physics and the

leader of the high energy experimental phys-

ics program at OSU, Khanov is an associate professor of physics and Haley is an assistant professor of

physics at OSU. All three are involved in the international ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron

Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, and have contributed to the discovery of a new fundamental particle,

the Higgs boson. Their current research focuses on searching for new fundamental particles associated

with supersymmetry as well as very heavy, yet-to-be-seen particles known as vector-like quarks. The

OSU team is also involved in the upgrade of the ATLAS detector scheduled for the near future.

Nandi, the principal investigator of this grant, and Babu are Regents Professors in the physics depart-

ment. Their research focuses on new theories leading to new particles and phenomena that may be dis-

covered at the Large Hadron Collider. Such theories include new types of Higgs bosons, new dimen-

sions beyond the known three, supersymmetry and unification of particles and forces.

This Department of Energy grant will also support theoretical explorations in neutrino physics, in par-

ticular, new phenomena that may be revealed in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)

which is under construction in the US. This experiment involves neutrino beams - beams of elusive

particles that rarely interact - shot from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) near

Chicago and detected in a deep underground mine in South Dakota some 1,300 km away, and looks

for quantum entanglements of different species of neutrinos. Babu is currently a Distinguished Fer-

milab Scholar and spends time there in the summer for research collaboration, along with his students.

This grant will enhance the participation of the OSU high energy physics group in research at the

world's highest energy particle accelerator, and will support students and postdoctoral fellows, with

some stationed at the CERN laboratory. It will also enhance OSU participation in research at the

"intensity frontier" associated with neutrino oscillations, and will enhance collaborations with Fer-

milab and will provide opportunities for OSU students to participate in research at the national lab.

Brian Petrotta | Arts and Sciences

OSU physicists land $1.27 million grant from Department of Energy


Professor Girish Saran Agarwal, FRS, DSC. (H.C.) retires after a long and

distinguished career at Oklahoma State University.

Faculty Retiring

After many years at Oklahoma State, Dr. Agarwal has retired.

He currently has taken a position with Texas A&M University.

Best known for his pioneering contributions to quantum optics, quantum

statistics and coherent control of quantum systems, Dr. Agarwal also made

major contributions to the fields of nonlinear optics, nano photonics and

plasmonics. He contributed more than 650 reviewed papers to a wide

range of topics in the fields of optics and quantum optics. In 2013, he pub-

lished his textbook - Quantum Optics (Cambridge University Press), cov-

ering a wide variety of recent developments.

Girish S. Agarwal has received numerous awards for his achievements in

the field of optics and quantum optics. This includes the Einstein Prize for

Laser Science (1994), the TWAS Prize in Physics (1994), and the Shanti

Swaroop Bhatnagar Award in Physical Sciences by the Government of In-

dia (1982). He was invited to the Sir JC Bose Chair at the Indian Institute

of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India, and the JRD Tata Chair at The Tata Insti-

tute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. In 2012, he was recognized by Oklahoma State Uni-

versity with the “Eminent Faculty Award”.

Professor Bruce Ackerson retiring next September.

After forty-plus years, Dr. Bruce Ackerson will be retiring this September.

“I will hang up my spurs on September 5, 2018. That's right, I'm done, finished,

quitting, going out to pasture, retiring. Mind you, it's been a great run at OSU. Lanie

and I didn't think we would be here more than a few years, but a department where

people get along is hard to leave. While I continue to publish, I'm not taking stu-

dents nor seeking external funding. At age 70, I must take retirement distributions.

So, it's time to clean out the dead wood. But I'll still be around in my office and

ready to show off my demonstrations.”

Emrah Turgut, Ph.D. joins us in the Fall as our newest Assistant Professor

We would like to welcome our newest Assistant Professor, Emrah Turgut,

Ph.D. Turgut received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder

in 2014. From there he moved to Ithaca, New York to be a Postdoctoral

Associate at Cornell University. We are excited to have him this Fall.

“We study materials because we are curious how materials show countless

different properties. High energy physicists call the family of elementary

particles as a zoo. Because they trap them in LHC and study them in a con-

trolled way. We also study elementary and sometimes quasi-particles, but in

a condensed matter environment, which is like a jungle, unlike a zoo. Our

typical 1021 electrons can behave violently in this jungle and result in mag-

netism, superconductors, topological insulators …”

New Faculty


Message from SPS

Society of Physics Students

The OSU Chapter of the Society of Physics has been busy this

year! We had a blast at our annual fall picnic, and we are al-

ready planning for the spring picnic too. In February, we set

up a table at Will Rogers Elementary for the STEM fair, where we

demonstrated some neat physics with the generous assistance of a Van de Graff generator. Back

in December, we had a physics department Secret Santa where many undergraduates and Dr. Ha-

ley exchanged gifts. We’ve also been working hard at our two projects: a telescope, and a trebu-

chet. Lastly, we have hosted several speaker lunches with the various colloquium speakers to pro-

vide the undergraduates a place to learn about the various research being done by professors out-

side of our school. Stay tuned for all the neat things the SPS will be doing in the coming year!

Department Highlights

Eclipse

August 21st, 2017 was a spectacular day for seeing a

total solar eclipse. If one took a little drive, they

could see the eclipse in totality. The moon’s shadow

crossed 14 states, from Oregon to South Carolina.

Dylan Chapman and Mingzheng Yang uncover-

ing the water line at the Observatory.

Work at the Observatory

OSU Physics Crashes ESPN College Game Day

Did you happen to catch College Game Day on ESPN? Thanks to the creative insight, artistic

ability, and early morning motivation of Dr. Joseph Haley and Dr. David McIlroy, OSU Physics

was front and center for the entire ESPN viewing audience. Dr. Haley’s now famous Pistol Ein-

stein Pete currently hangs in the stairwell of Physical Sciences II.

Astronomy and Observatory


Unexpected Patterns in Snow and Dirt

Featured Publication

Bruce J. Ackerson, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK

or more than 30 years, Albert A. Bartlett published

“Thermal patterns in the snow” in this journal.1-12

These are patterns produced by heat sources under-

neath the snow. Bartlett’s articles encouraged me to pay

attention to patterns in snow and to understanding them.

At winter’s end the last snow becomes dirty and is heaped

into piles. This snow comes from the final clearing of

sidewalks and driveways. The patterns observed in these

piles defied my intuition. This melting snow develops

edges where dirt accumulates, in contrast to ice cubes,

which lose sharp edges and become more spherical upon

melting. Furthermore, dirt absorbs more radiation than

snow and yet doesn’t melt and round the sharp edges of

snow, where dirt accumulates.

F

Fig. 1. Note the dirt decorating the sharp edges of this melting

three-dimensional structure.

Fig. 2. Here dirt decorates edges, and large concave pockets

appear free of detritus.

Fig. 4. The upper curve is a plot of [x(s,0), z(s,0)] = [s, h(s)]. The

lower curve is a plot of [x(s,t), z(s,t)] for t = 1.1. Here h(s) = sin(s).

The arrows are lines of constant s, are perpendicular to both

curves, and represent the direction of melting. All the arrows are

the same length and connect the one-dimensional snow surfaces

at two different times. A kink or discontinuity in slope occurs at

the maximum of the lower curve.

Fig. 3. The upper curve is a plot of [x(s,0), z(s,0)] = [s,h(s)]. The

lower curve is a plot of [x(s,t), z(s,t)] for t = 0.5. Here h(s) = sin(s)

+ . The arrows are lines of constant s, are perpendicular

to both curves, and represent the direction of melting. All the

arrows are the same length and connect the one-dimensional

snow surfaces at two different times.

For more of this publication, go to https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.5018678.

Newsletter - physics.okstate.edu · Newsletter 2018 │ 1 Letter from the Department Head Hello to our alumni and friends, It has been awhile since our last newsletter and a lot has

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